"Quicksand" by Nella Larson
excerpt from "Quicksand"
"Sitting there in her room, long hours after, Helga again felt a surge of hot anger and seething resentment. And again it subsided in amazement at the memory of the considerable applause which had greeted just before he had asked his Gods blessing upon them" (6).
Betty
Quicksand
Intro
Quicksand is a novel written by Nella Larsen during the Harlem Renaissance, a time in which African Americans where allowed to flower. It was at the time the “New Negro movement” that allowed artist, and intellectuals of dark color to prove themselves just as good as the white Americans, while still embracing their culture and standing out. Nella Larsen was one of those African Americans who, through meeting other Negroes who thought the Harlem Renaissance important, became a prominent writer. In 1928 she published the book Quicksand that was of course successful because it carried high quality and prestige.
Analysis
Helga Crane the main character is confronted by particularly one big problem. She is unhappy most of the time. She left from her mother's because she felt uncomfortable within the whites of her community. She left “Naxos”, a school based on Tuskegee University because she was dissatisfied with the whole foundation of the place and how everyone was segregated. She moves to Chicago and then leaves to Harlem because her uncle shuns her. Helga leaves once again to Copenhagen and becomes sort of a sexual icon. This goes on for a while until it's quite easy to realize that she is not dissatisfied with her own life but rather by what she has been surrounded by most of the time, racial prejudice people who basically shun other races. According to what she has been around all of her life ,one is either white or black, there for one can not play both roles in one because there are certain privileges that go along with each race. She is constantly caught between two walls and she comes to realize that by believing such she herself bars herself from personal advancement.
excerpt from "Quicksand"
"Sitting there in her room, long hours after, Helga again felt a surge of hot anger and seething resentment. And again it subsided in amazement at the memory of the considerable applause which had greeted just before he had asked his Gods blessing upon them" (6).
Betty
Quicksand
Intro
Quicksand is a novel written by Nella Larsen during the Harlem Renaissance, a time in which African Americans where allowed to flower. It was at the time the “New Negro movement” that allowed artist, and intellectuals of dark color to prove themselves just as good as the white Americans, while still embracing their culture and standing out. Nella Larsen was one of those African Americans who, through meeting other Negroes who thought the Harlem Renaissance important, became a prominent writer. In 1928 she published the book Quicksand that was of course successful because it carried high quality and prestige.Analysis
Helga Crane the main character is confronted by particularly one big problem. She is unhappy most of the time. She left from her mother's because she felt uncomfortable within the whites of her community. She left “Naxos”, a school based on Tuskegee University because she was dissatisfied with the whole foundation of the place and how everyone was segregated. She moves to Chicago and then leaves to Harlem because her uncle shuns her. Helga leaves once again to Copenhagen and becomes sort of a sexual icon. This goes on for a while until it's quite easy to realize that she is not dissatisfied with her own life but rather by what she has been surrounded by most of the time, racial prejudice people who basically shun other races. According to what she has been around all of her life ,one is either white or black, there for one can not play both roles in one because there are certain privileges that go along with each race. She is constantly caught between two walls and she comes to realize that by believing such she herself bars herself from personal advancement.Bibliography
"Nella Larsen." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 30 Apr 2009, 23:48 UTC. 21 May 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nella_Larsen&oldid=287149391>."Harlem Renaissance." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 21 May 2009, 03:11 UTC. 21 May 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harlem_Renaissance&oldid=291321057>.